F 154 
.L92 
Copy 1 



LETTERS 



FROM 



HON. M. B. LOWET, 



SENATOR FROM ERIE, 



TO 



GEORGE BERG:^ER, Esq., 



EDITOR HARRISBURG TELEGRAPH. 



ERIE, PENN'A. : 

Republican Steam Printing Establisument. 

1870. 






LETTEES EEOM 



5 Ho^. M. B. LOWET, 



SENATOR FROM ERIE, TO 



GEOEGE BEEGNEE, Esq., 



EDITOR HARRISBURGH TELEGRAPH, 



Ko. 1. 

TIjo 'Slesslau of Tlie Marrisburs' Tclo- 
C^orrespoiidoijcc . 



IlAKr^iSBURG, Marc'ii 1, 1870. 
Dkacon Geokge Bergker : — 

As you are the editor of the only Republi- 
can paper at the capilol of Pennsylvania, as 
you are the late j publisher of the LegidcUive 
Record, as you are the contractor for the 
stationery and do the advertising of the State, 
as you are a banker of the funds of the Com- 
monwealth, as \'nu arc a law-seller and the 
l;ingof the "ring," as you are a distinguished 
ex-mule and horse contractor, as you are a 
lurnier agent for bounty-jumpers, as you are 
a vote seller of members of the Legislature, 
as you are the agent for all Legislative jol)s, 
as you are the ^lackey elector, as you now 
are and long have been Postmaster at Ilar- 
risl)urg, I know you will pardon me if I have 
omitted any of the numerous titles you hold 
and have so well earned. Ever since the 
commencement of tlie present session of the 
Leiiislaturc you have advertised me faitii- 
f'ully and gratuitously'' in your own pure and 
incorruptible paper, the whole aim and pur- 
pose of which lias been to read me out of the 
liepublican party, and to rentier me odious 
to the people of this State, and especially to 
those of my own constituents whom you 
have kindly furni.shed with krgc editions of 



your paper without charge. As there is no 
o; her Republican paper at the seat of go^-- 
ernment but your own, I most respectfully 
ask tlie Eceninrj Tdegrnph of Philadelphia to 
enable me to be faithful to you and just to 
myself, by publishing these tokens of my af- 
fection for you. 

As I have bit little time to spare fnnn mj 
official duties, I shall proceed to answer the 
accusations of the "Heathen Hessian" in a 
series of letters as brief as pos&ible, and be- 
fore I get through with you I will show u]> 
and expose to the people of this Common- 
wealth your' recorded peculations from the 
books of the Auditor-GencraTs office — pecu- 
lations which are but trifling in comparison 
with those which are unrecorded. 

My first of!en,se against the peace and dig- 
nity of the Republican party is that lastyear, 
as well as this year, I refused to abide by the 
decision of a caucus to pass the Metropolitan 
Police bill, and also that last year, and this 
year, I refused to vote for ]\[r. Jlackcy for 
State Treasurer. In this lett'^r I shall only 
briefly refer to the Metropolitan Police bill, 
that hideous legislative monstorsity, and the 
reasons which actuated me as a true and 
faithful Republican in opposing it. In the 
first place, as a t-ue and honest Reind)lican, 
nc consideration that could be presented 
would ever induce me to aid in the passage 
of any bill that woidd not only bankrupt the 
city of Philadelphia, but that would destroy 
the very foundation upon which our republi- 
can institutions rest. This liill struck a fatal 



blow at the republican coiiUitution of our 
State ; it was in ilirect opposition to tbe let- 
ter and spirit of the Federal Constitution; it 
invaded the sacred rights of the people to 
manage their domestic affairs in their own 
way, and it deprived tlic people of their in- 
herent sovereignty, the right to govern them- 
selves, and all this I was re(iuired to do for 
the benefit of a ring of bad men, of which 
you were the ring-master. Admit for one 
moment the doctrines contained in that bill, 
and you may say a long farewell to civil and 
religions libertv ; you establish an empire 
upon the ruins "of this glorious Republic, you 
desecrate the Temple of Liberty, and convert 
it into the palace of a despot. Out of your 
own mouth vou are condemue'l. Look at 
the brutal attacks you have made upon me 
for that vote, and then look at your paper of 
the 11th ultimo, containing the immortal 
message of (jovcruor Geary vetoing the bill, 
and read your short but pointed editorial. 
The irresistible reasoning, the unanswerable 
arguments, were too much for you, and you 
were compelled to justify my c(5urse by ap- 
proving and endorsing the veto. As far my 
information extends, every paper in this 
State has endorsed the veto, and thus sus- 
tained me. except three Republican i)apers, 
one in Philadelphia, one in Pittsburgh, and 
one in Erie. 

With a unanimity unparalleled the Avhole 
press of the nation approve of the veto, and 
commend it in the higliest terms. This mes- 
sage has done more, and Justly, to give Gov. 
Geary a national reputation than any or all 
other public acts in his life. It must have 
had a tremendwus power and force, or you 
never would have yielded to it in the tiuck- 
ling, sycophantic manner you did. 

When this vile invasion of the people's 
rights first ui^peared I took my stand as a Re- 
publican, solitary and alone, against it, and 
continued to light it unawed and undoubted, 
until Geary drove the peblde of truth deep 
into the forehead of this uncircumcised Phil- 
istine giant, Avho expired amid his weeping 
worshippers, among whoin you were chief. 

I stood, sir, unmoved, the storm of your 
detraction, until it spent its force and lulled 
into a quiet calm. The reservoir of j'our 
slander, "the foulest whelp of sin," has been 
exhausted and tlio bright raj's of the sun of 
truth are about to penetrate the dark recesses 
of your rascality, and expose you to the pub- 
lic gaze in all your native and naked deform- 
ity- 

Before 1 am <lone with yon, sir, yonr natu- 
ral and accpiired beauties shall be fully seen. 
1 will make 

"Your name, yonr hurain name, to every eye, 
The climax of all Kconi to hang on high, 
E.Kalted o'er yonr lossi abhorred compeers. 
And restoring in the iul'amy of years " 
Mj reasous and my Motives in opposing the 
bill ate befoie the country, and Unowu and 



seen of all BiPQ. The reasons and motives by 
whioh you nr« acluate" in advocating it aie, 
general, y. in yonr wallet and, covered by al! 
the privacy and the da'kness which the clasp 
that hoids the .<oine can secure. 

The motive power, ihe niainsprinir of action 
in vour soul, is avarice and cupidity; nil other 
passions of your fallen nature, envy jealousy, 
htitred. and reveiijie clusier in dwarf-like pn*- 
l)ortijns around tlu< great overshadowing cen- 
tral fi;iure, preteiuing a, group of horrid de- 
formity. Selak. 

You will hear from me again, my beloved 
Deacon, at my e rliest convenience". 

Faithfully yours, Moukow B. Lowky. 



Ho^v BergtierDoi's Up His".4r?;iunPiits" 
ill JEnvelope<«— SSis War Kec-oid— L,ow- 
ry Gives tin- a*eople a '■Smell" of tl»«' 
I>e coil's Vileness. 



Harrisbukg, March 2, 1870. 
Dkacon Georgk Bergxer: 

At the conclusion of my letter of yesterday 
I lelt you hissing likf a i^erpent at me for v«ting 
against the Minropolitan Police infaniy. because 
you could not use m", and cooing like a dove 
to Governor Geary for vetoinor this same mea.s- 
nre, "that thrift might follow fawning." In 
this you n)ainfMSted at)out thesame consistency 
as you do upon the bill for the establ shinenl 
of a new county with its seat at Titusville. In 
your vile paper, lieretofore, which boasts of 
leading tbe great Republican party of Penu- 
svlvania you base charged me at least a score 
of times with being personally interested in it 
to a very large amount in securing tbe passage 
of the measure; and in the same paper of the 
24:th, afiei- you had done your infamous work, 
there yon ay that I went back upon my per- 
sonal interest (a thing that jou were never ac- 
cused of doing), and defeated the passage of 
the new county bill in the House. In my sim^ 
plicity I had not supposed, imtil you made the 
wondenid discovery, that I controlled both 
branches of the Legislature. But I was led to 
believe, from rumors in the ears of every one, 
and what was manifest to all, that there were 
at least more than thirty men of the Hou.«e 
who could each produce two hundred better 
reasons than you give in your paper. These 
private reasons, if rumor be true, were given 
by v(m to them in envelopes. 

You always have boasted that jou could 
purchase more Democrats with the same mon- 
ey than you coidd Republicans, and your ne- 
gotiations upon the new county bill satisfies 
me that for once you told the truth. You al- 
ways purchase at the lowest market price, and 
sell at the highest. 

But this is a digression from the main oV>ject 
of my letters which I have started with. They 
were not so much to defend myself as to expose 
you, and I will not in the future be switched 



ort' upon !iny side track. ITow dare j'on (jne?- 
lion my Republicanism, and Lbat of a band of 
men too lioucst to be boui:;lit and too luave to 
be driven into voting- fur a candidate tbr Slate 
Treasurer, when Ibey knew, ar.d everybody 
knew, that your ortrnnizaiion bad corrupted a 
majority of the caucus bofbre you had called 
ihem together? 

George Bersiner. you .'sir. have bad an unin- 
terrupted career of fraud at the capiiol. galh- 
erins;- gains from <H-ery act of wrong perpetra- 
ted by the vile of boih parties in the Legisla- 
ture, and were alvvay>i moie willing to enter 
int > alliance with political foes for plundering 
tlie Treasury than to unite with a political 
tiieiid to protect it. It is no secret that your 
I'aper is a vile organ ofa dangerous ''ring." and 
the defender and coverer-ui' of ttie tracks uf 
the vile. You, sir, who. by persistent prac- 
tice, have lived in the faith that the end of all 
public life should inure to the corrupt foi tunes 
of jjri'fiigate adventurers, of whom you, a lew 
years aiio, were a mere ajiproiUice. but are 
now chief, should not call in ciuestiou the in- 
tegrity or Republicanism o( any man 

I now propose in this letter, and that which 
is to follow, to dissect your political course, 
and let the people of this Stale smell you, and 
they will be enabled to say with certainty who 
have been betrayers of the party and the 
plunderers of the State. For forty years I 
have been a careful observer of politics at 
Harrisbnrg, and for nine years, during all the 
reign of terror through which we have passed. 
I have been a watchful man of your course, 
Auuing the m isses of ihe gi-eat m ijority which 
compose the Republican party its principles 
are held sacred and dear, aud those Republi- 
cans who I his year refused to vote for your can- 
didate for State Taeasurer are among the best 
men in the State and from the most faithful 
Republican counties. You were here at Har- 
risbnrg when thousands laid down their lives in 
tlieir devotion to the principles of the Repub- 
lican 5)arty, and to-day the country is filled 
wiih the widows and the orphans of the he- 
roic martyrs. At Harrisburg. in the circle 
where you move(l,when the nation was bleeding 
at every pore,tf e only incentive that entered the 
heart of you and your a-sociates was to plunder 
—feasting on the holy offerings that others made 
to insure the safety of the Government ! You, 
during these times were clinching vowr game.-*, 
and selling and ro-selling your influence with 
your horses and mules, when the brave, the 
generous, and the patriotic wore spilling their 
blood and scatcring their fortunes to crush 
treason. 

The war, thank God, has now passed. Re- 
construction is a li.ved fact, and good men's 
fears are not that the G&vernmenl will be 'ost 
from enemies without, but that it will be de- 
stroyed by corruptiouists, like yourself, from 
within. The office of State Treasurer has 
been one of the mediums through which you 
and your eonfederates have boldly corrupted 
State polities, debauched both political par- 
ties, and outraged the people at large. It is 



no secret at Harrisburg that every man. pro- 
bably, .save one, who has held the office of 
State Tr«asu!er since lS(iO. and many before 
that day, purcha-ed, or by dishororable m ans 
procured, the votes < fa sutticient number of 
members to elect him before the caucus was 
called. The caucus system of nominations, 
which is a protection for party organizations, 
has, under )<iur management, become a 
gigantic machine moved aud controlled by 
bad men to perp trate gtuj.ondous villainies. 
The breaking up of this organization by any 
means aitd l)y all means was not only a public 
duly but a private virtue, and your iHdignaiion 
at those whu broke it up is the bi^st evidence of 
their virtues. ]'>y means of tbocaucuis the candi- 
dates for State 'freasurer are forced by you and 
your paper, and your coconspirators, to ex- 
pend thousands of dollars to obtain the place, 
or to give you the whole treasury of the State 
to be used for venal purposes. Thercj is no at- 
tempt to keep this fact a secret. You have 
been an active dealer in such business for more 
than ten years, managing in that time (for be- 
foiethat you were comparatively a poor man) 
to amass an immense fortune, and which by far 
the greater portion thereof, by this aud other 
legislative and governmental rascalities, has 
come out of the pockets of taxpayers or corpor- 
ations that sought legislation at Harrisburg. 
All these gains were accumulated to gorge the 
avarice and greed of the vile body of men that 
the best men in Penn.sylvania now look upon 
as the greatest crivninals of the age. I do aot 
assert that in the sale of the office of State 
Treasurer, Senators and Representatives, 
as a general thing, have personally 
''stepped up to the captain's office" 
and ofl'ered them.-.elves for sale, or 
that in all cases ihey can show the profits of 
this disreputable traffic. In this busine.ss the 
m; gic power is controlled 'in the wheel within 
a wheel," such as you managing to selt the 
votes of new members screwing up their fiears 
and ambitions to become members of commit- 
tees or the promise of office for the support of 
Senators' and Reprosentatives' votes in elections 
of Treasurers and other legislative commodi- 
ties. 

The mem thus bartered for, in many cases be- 
fore they left oome, were ignorant of knowing 
it, or feared for their private legislation and 
for their reputation in your paper too much to 
complain of it. Your frowns aud your flatter- 
ies, aud those of your backers have bad a po- 
tential influence. Your paper has been used 
as a straw to tickle or to tingle their ears, or 
as a penny whistle to please their fancy, or to 
damn them amongst their constituents. Hun- 
dreds, if not thousands, have been bound hand 
and foot, and voted to subserve the ends of 
your frauds. 

You could toll us now, George Bergner, if 
you would, the state of the negotiations of the 
raid of seven millions upon the treasury now 
about to take place. If those who have it in 
charge will come down gracefully, their bill 
will succeed. If they do not. you will crush it 



— 4 



(lilt. (Uid unbliishingly claim tbat you acted 
fi'din piil)lic consideratif ns. 

[ shall continue this subject, Deacon Berg- 
nor. and I will be failtifnl to you, fairnCnl to 
the people of Pennsylvania, faithful to the lic- 
pnlilican party, that mu^it perish or set rid of 
you, and faithful to the cause of truth. 

MOKROW B. LOWRY. 



Xo. 



«>. 



He Traohs tlie EJeacotj-^ " Slimy 
Licusth" TlaroHsli tUa J^obbtes, and 
SUo^^•s Ills Prospect ctl' Sonne Day Han g-- 
iiis iroiii a l-aisi|»-po*t, Higli Above 
il»e Rest oil !!ie I'liiudereis. 



CoxTiNEXTAi, Hotel, PHii.ADKLPnrA, March 
?>, 1870. — Deacon George Bergner: — Yesterday 
1 parted with you ubmiiily. and with regret, 
at the capitol of law sellers; today I warmly 
greet yeiu from the city of Penn. My duties 
bc-re are of svrch a character that it may be out 
of my power again to salute you before I re- 
turn to the home of the bead of an organiza- 
tion which p\irchases, intimidates, and de- 
bauches men at the lowest price, and sells their 
votes at the highest— a city which has within 
itself an oriranizatioa of whi.h yen aie an out- 
rider, standing like a highwayman, demanding 
of every corporation in the State, as well a:< ev- 
ery individual who seeks legislation, their pur- 
ses or. their lives. Pardon me, my dear Dea- 
con, for this complimentary digression, and I 
will pi-oceed with the main issue. 

One year ago I protested against your out- 
rageous practice of corrupting a majority of the 
Kepiiblicaa party on or belore their arrival at 
llairisburg. and then calling a cauciis, when 
you knew that the knaves could oiitvofe the 
honest men, and compelliDg us to stiind by the 
party or suffer the ignominy ot voting with the 
Democracy. I protested against these out- 
rag«s, and showed my contempt for such cau- 
cus nominations by refusing to vole for the 
caucus nominee for State Treasurer. 

I would not have dared to have done so dur- 
ing the war, tor then we had a nation to save 
from rebels, but now we have to save it from 
thieves. The African to-day is riding in the 
cars, the negro has taken the seat of J;iFDav!.s 
in the Senate of the United States, the colored 
man will vote at all future elections, ho already 
represents us in the army and at foreign courts, 
and with these great facts accomplished, the 
qi estion of his position is forever establishe<l ; 
i«nd in lutnre my attention shall be directed to 
such men as you. 

I knew last winter that the nomination of 
Mr. MaoJvey had been purcha-ed, and that the 
movers in it had insulted the dignity and out- 
raged the clearly expressed preferences of the 
Republican party for another man. In this 
struggle private bankers openly took par'^,Sen-' 
ators ar.d representatives were importuned 
before they reached Ilarrisburg, and long be- 



fore a caucus was ca'leil a niajoiiiy of (he dom- 
inynt party were pledged, bound hand and 
loot, and carried into our gatherings, where 
they were voted in the interest of the ring that 
ruled. I beheld, with shame and humiliation, 
these proceeding tor years. I have watchi d you 
Deacon Bergncu-, while showing your shiny 
lengih along the lobbies of the Legislaiiire. 
plying a vocation as fixed by yourself or fixed 
for you by your \vealihier and, if po8?it>le. 
more corrupt masters. 

Your newspaper has been prostituted to 
these disgraceful purposes, and is the defender 
now of (he ))lundeier.- of the Treasury, and the 
defamer ol those wh(un you could not purchase, 
and who are endeavoring to protect the pub- 
lic moneys from swindlers and robbers. Oiio 
year ago I was compelled, injustice to the peo- 
ple and out of regard to the honor of the Re- 
pul)licaH party, to strike at tho-^e who are its 
wor.-t enemies, and try to protect it from fur- 
ther polln ion. Of coiu>e. in doing this [ in- 
curred your hatred and that of your confeder- 
ates, who monopolize the deposits of the pub- 
re money, and who do the great measure of 
their banking business with the funds of the 
Commonwealth. A year ago you supposed 
the Treasury thieves had become permanently 
fixed in power, and you, Dtacon Bergner, al- 
so started a t)ank, that you might share in 
their profits, Mr. Mackey, the State Treasur- 
er, giving you a deposit, on which capital. I 
have leasou to believe, this institution was 
solely based. My course and that of my com- 
rades put an end to your note-shaving with the 
public money. And when I used my efforts to 
save the Republican party and the .State Trea- 
sury from the clutches of thieves.' I drew upon 
myself their miilignant hate, and thou;:b you 
^vere ])ut forward to tiirnw your tilth upon me. 
1 knew that behiad weie those who owned and 
used you. 

By the practices to which I have alluded, 
youandyourconfederat.es have amassed for- 
t;ines, gigantic in proportion and in fraud - 
fortunes stolen from the Treasuries of thft 
S a'e and General Government — and it is 
stated as a fact, and I believer it to be true, 
that you may present a bill of an- character, 
however questionable, and for any amount of 
money, and you can pass it through the Leg- 
islature. Tb« fortunes thus m-'de are now 
fioldly used to defy the will of the people of 
Pennsylvania, by corrupting their rapresentti- 
lives wh<^never it is the interest ot these men 
to do so, and after having once dono so, auda- 
ciously make it public that whenever they wanf 
a Senator they buy him like a sheep in the 
shatnbles. 

The defeat of Mr. Mackey for State Treasurer 
was the o ily way I could see to the beginning 
ot the end of this shame and fraud, which the 
people of Pennsylvania have so long and so 
grievously suffered. I tiave started an iuvosti- 
gatiou, which has already developed a condi- 
tion of affairs which would, if driven homt-, 
arouse the apprehension of every tax-payer, 
and impel the people to force their represeuta- 



tivee to inaugurate an absolute reform in their 
legislation, ar Ihey will tivko it in their own 
hands, us the people did in the French rovolu- 
t'on, and hany the leaders to the lamp-posts ot 
the Capitol, and yon Deacon Bergner, when 
that day comoij, will be exalted above the rest, 
as chiel among the clan of public plnnderers. 

Believe me, dear Dcnxcon, with distinguished 
consideration, faithfully yours. 

MOKUOW B. LOWUY. 



Xbe Figriire!* in Tlie Case-Bereiior UruwM 
Over $'.iOO,000 from tlie Slate Treaiotiry 
ill NiuoVearx.Liilio*viNe $200,000 I'roui 
Otker Public Treasuries— $3O,0OO a 
Vear iu Clear Oaiu, 

Harkisbuuu, March 4, 1870. 
Dkacon Geouue Bekgxer: — 

I salute you again this morning, having re- 
turned to a city and a Legislaturi' which you 
and your associale.« are fast making od.uusaud 
infamous by your vile practices. So inldmous. 
that th* public, when they see that you, you 
yourself, without exposure until now, have 
made a sum out of the sweat ol' the people suf- 
ficient to build a State Capitol in any square 
in Philadelphia, will be astounded, and you 
had better i)reparo to meet the scorn and right- 
eous indignation which your conduct so justly 
deserves. In my first letter 1 promised to give, 
the people some ot the items from the Auditor- 
Generai'a office of your recorded peculations. 
The unreconled ones of which I spoke will, la 
all probability, be covered by an impenetrable 
veil until the great day of accounts— lor under 
the laws of Pennsylvania you are a close cor- 
poration. Deacon George Bergner, stand up 
and listen to thd following statement from the 
Record : 

In 1861 — For furnishing Senate and Ilonse 
with Ptaiiouery and piintin>r the 

Btcord $10,180 

In 1862. •' " " 9,.S14 

In 186.9. •' " " 8,6S8 

Inl.-'64. '• " " 12,<39 

In 186.5. " " " 13,S84 

In 1866. " " " 17,71^ 

Inl8H7. •• " " 2--J.V9-! 

In 1866. " " " 4-i,'(70 

In 1869. " " " 'i0,357 

Total $158,506 

It must bo borne in mind, while contemplating 
this vast sum, that you have claimed and been 
allowed the monopoly of hirnishing nil the de- 
partments, while in the hands of Republicans 
with all the stationary used therein since 18G1, 
which may be safely aggregated at, for ten 
years, the sum of SoD.OOO, which added to 
$158.o06, makes the princely sum of $208,506 
you have drawn from the State Treasury since 
1861, M-iying nothing about tons upon tons of 
your worthless Le'jlslative Record which you 
sold to the paper makers, and pocketed the 
proceeds, after you had received pay from the 
Btu(ti i^t the rate of fifteeu dollars a page, 



' (u addition to thi.'i, Deacon Bergner, you 
have been Postmaster of Ilarri.^bura; for six 
years, a place ilia' a crippled soldier and au 
honest mau should hav<5 eujnyed, at an ag- 
gregate salary of $18,300. While Postm<ti,ter 
you have had a share In a m ijority of tho 
contracts given during the Rebeili( ti to a 
favored class of Republicans ol llairisburg, 
from which it is pojiularly asserted and be- 
lieved you made $l.J0.0ll0. You have ha 1 a 
monopoly ot all advertising done for ten years 
past by the United Stales Government at llar- 
risburg, which practical printers assure me 
was worth $10,000. You have been doing the 
printing and advertising lor Dauphin county 
ior fifteen yiNir.-, for which you rei eived 510,- 
OUU i)rofit. This shows, in round llgii res, that 
you have received from theNatioui.l, State and 
bauphii) county treasuries, iu ten years, the 
Bum ot $390,806. 

Nor is this all. You have bad a profit on all 
the coal lurnished to the State of Peiinsylviaiia, 
lor use in the Capitol, during th(* same ten 
years. \''ou undoubtedly made meney in fur- 
nishing the Legislature with postuiie-stamj s (of 
which I shall speak in detail) while you were 
Postmaster — so that, aggregating all the piofits, 
you have reaped from all the public treasuries 
into which you cuuld plunge your arm, it issafe 
to put down your total of clear gains, ind'.'pen- 
dent of your Legislative jobs, in ten year, at 
$275,000! And you are not done or satisfied 
even now, because you still have a 
monopcly of the patronage of the t lerks 
of both branches of tho Legislature, un-l all 
the departments ot the Stale Government, are 
Postmaster, and do all tho advertising at Har- 
risburg for the United States Goveriiment, so 
that you to-day, independent of your publicly 
])lundeied fortunes, enjoy an income of clear 
])rotit from official patronas'e alone ot noi. less 
than $6000 annually ! You allow no other 
Republican to claim any share in a Reini'ilican 
victory. Not satisfied with your gatnn as I 
have given them, you actually started a kind 
of book bank, and shaving shop, to ea/ry on 
the business of which during last year — the 
first of its existence — State Troiisurer Makey 
allowed you to use, and you are still using. 
$25,000 of the people's money, which yc u loan 
them (their own money). at usurious interest. 

What can tho masses of the Republican par- 
ty think of the picture? I gain my knowledsie 
of the amounts of money you drew Iron the 
?itaie from the reports of the Auditor-G-neial. 
On one occasion, after you had been paid an 
account to which you had sworn, it was discov- 
ered' you had fraudulently drawn moie than 
you weie entitled to, and were compelhd to 
reltirn to tho State the sum of which you 
sought to cheat it, and it was no easy |0b to 
compel you to disgorge. My informaii >n as to 
your other receipts of public money, 1 i/eliepe, 
is correct and reliable. You may have lieeu in 
secret schemes of i)liinder outside of y< ur 1-iw 
selling, with which I am not acquainte>l. You 
certainly are engaged as a constant barer in 
the lobbies of the l.,egislaturc, where you pass 



— G 



your time during the session of that body, in- 
stead of remaining in the Harrisburg Post 
Office attending t^ duties which you thus ne 
gleet, and for which you receive an annual 
salary of several thousand dollars. 
The Postmaster-General ought certain- 
ly to know that the Post Office at 
Harrisburg is, to all intents and purposes 
conducted without the pre^sence of its legally 
appointed Postmaster; one whom nine-tenths 
of the decent and respectable Republicans of 
this city repudiate, and who, if they had the 
power, would hurl from a positinn he dis- 
graces. In conclusion. Deacon Bergner, let me 
whisper in your ear. and suggest that before 
you go hence, you sell you ill-gotten hindt) and 
newly-constructed blocks, and have ihe pro- 
ceeds ready to deposit in the am>)le pockets of 
your shroud, and in a strong iron safe in your 
grave, wherewith to lemnt St. Peter, as you 
have often tempted mombert of the Legisla- 
ture, and be prepared to cheat the Devil, as 
this is manifestly the best use you are likely 
ever to make of it. 

As I intend to be as radical on thieves in 
peace as I was on rebels in war, I shall contin- 
ue this subject. 

I am, Deacon, as ever, faithfully yours. 

Morrow B. Lowry. 



No. 3. 

The neacoii's "Total Depra-^'^ity"— How 
He Used to Knii Up the Postage Bin of 
the Slate— How He Is watched While 
Passing Around the Collection ISag in 
Church, and Oivers Other lUatters, 



Harrisburg, Maich 5. 
Dear Deacon Bergner: — 

The conciusion of my letter ihis morning 
was perhaps a little severe. This, however, 
you must attribute to the reckh'ss manner in 
which you have prostituted tl>e Legislature, 
and, by a reluctant division of the spoils, secur- 
ed the assistance of some of your political op- 
ponents. You have almost, if not quite, es- 
tablished the doctrine of tot d depravity. I 
write this on Saturday evening, so that you 
may not be disappointed in my daily evidence 
of devotion for you. I have further evidence 
from the Auditor-Generars office, to which I 
now call your special attention. 

It has been the custom in this State, and 1 
believe nearly all the States, for members of 
the Senate andHouse of Repre.-entativeg to put 
their names upon their letters and documents 
which are deposited in the Post Office by the 
Messenger, and for the Postmaster to put. on 
the necessary stamps and charge it to the State. 
This jiractice has been in force in this Com 
mcn^ealth until the pre.sent se.ssion. We dis- 
covered that the State was being largely de- 
frauded by you. and at a very great incor.ven- 
ience and d-iily annoyance to oursr vi.s we 
changed the law. Our reasons for d ling so 
you already know, and the public will lind in 

be following statement taken from the books 



of the Auditor-General. In 1862 you the 
Postmaster at Harrisburg, swore that you had 
put postage stamps on mail matter for the Sen- 
ate and House of Representatives, vulgar frac- 
tious omitted, to the amount of Sl.'JjlilO. In 
the year 18f)4 the amount of your account 
against the State reached the handsome little 
sum of $23,392, to the correctness of which 
you made oath. In 1865 you were removed 
from the post office by Andrew Johnson, which 
deed on his part was perhaps the best he per- 
formed during his fitful and unsatisfactory ad- 
ministration. 

General Simon Cameron, in an evil hour for 
his own lame, and in direct opposition to the 
wishes of the citizens of this city, and against 
the protest of the Republican party heie, had 
you rein? tated in office and a brave soldier re- 
moved to give you possession. 

According to the record now before me, your 
account against the State the first year after 
you took charge of the office the second lime 
amounted to the enormous sum of $19,072. 
Stand up Deacon George, and tell the people 
that, iu 1862, you used posrage stamps for the 
Legislature amounting to $15,199; in 1864 you 
advanced to the sum of $23,392, and that after 
a short absence from office you again took pos- 
session and made a forced march up to the sum 
of $29,072. when the Legislature wisely took 
the matter out of your hands, having become 
alarmed at your de.xterity and facility in in- 
creasing the charges against the Stale, without 
any inciease in the quantity of mail matter 
sent off. Give the people an estimate of the 
amount to which you would have increased 
these expenses had the Legislature not taken 
the alarm and relieved you from the opportunity 
With no increase in postage, with no more 
letters and documents sent off requiring stamps 
in 1869 than in 1862, and perhaps not as many, 
we find under the judicious and skilful mKuage- 
menlof the pious Deacon an increase m the 
sum paid in 1869 over that paid iu 1862of $1],- 
873. Bear in mind, my wortby friend, that 
whenever the Legislature becomes uneasy, or 
disturbed, or alarmed at anything you do, no 
matter what it is, there must be great danger, 
and some stupendous, overwhelming defect 
and deficiency somewhere. I see from your 
paper of the 4th iufttant that your tranquility 
lias been disturbed. You make a fieebie and 
abortive effort to ridicule me, without attempt- 
ing to reply to a single charge that I make 
against you. I may refer to this article again, 
but my object at present is to propound to you 
some interesting interrogatories, and let the 
people see whether you will answer them di- 
lect or not, or resort to ridicule. 

Question 1. After you bad been reappointed 
to tbe Post Office, and after the blue postage 
stamps had been issued several months, how 
many red stamps did you sell to the people of 
Harrisburg, and what was the amount you re- 
ceivde? 

Question 2. When you went into the office 
the second time, how many red postage stamps 
bad you on band, and as tbe General Post Of- 



lice was not issuing any, and bad not for sev- 
eral months, where uud from whom did you ob- 
tain Ihe same? 

Question d. When the opposition of the peo- 
ple ol this city, and the clamor which thoy 
raised against the selling of the old red postago 
stamps, forced you to stop, did you not send 
Ihe remainder ol what you had on hand to Phil- 
adelphia or some other locality fur sale, and 
what amount did you receive (or the sauu^? 

Question 4. Were the^e red stamps, which 
you must have held tor over Ihn'n y urs, in- 
cluded in the 1)111 you presented ajjraiust the 
Slate in ISfii for $23,392, which you alleged 
you liad furnished the Legislature in postage 
stamps to stuid otf their letters and docu- 
ments* ? 

Question .>. If these stamps were included 
in the aforesaid hill, please state your reasons 
for not returning them to the State Treasury? 

Will you answer the above interrogatories? 
That's the question. No dodging. 

Again referring to your paper of the 4th. you 
t<ay: "'lie (Lowry) has imposed on his con- 
.stituents continually by the publication in the 
Ligislative Ilecord of speeches which he could 
aoi compose and never delivered." 

I nev^-r wrote a letter or dictated one, made 
a speech or dictated it, that any intelligent 
man or woman in my district could not at once 
point to the author. My aUiiclion, which jou 
have so often gloated over in your paper, re- 
quires me to employ an amauuesis. Such 
ftatements do not and cannot injure me, but it 
is a source of pain and regret that eveu you. 
Deacon George, are so lost to every moral sen- 
sibility, 80 destitute of all shame, all virtue 
and all truth, as to utter such a falscdiood 

Suppoee the statemeat you make was true, 
what then? You have charged the State fif- 
teen dollars a page, and sworn to the truthful- 
ness of your account and received your pay 
therefor, for forged and bogus and fradulent 
bpeeches, thus making yourself as great a ras- 
cal as I have ever charged you with being. If 
there is any one thing which is better known 
to my constituents than another, it is that my 
speeches and writings father themselves. Thty 
are as legitimate and unmistakable as my own 
peculiarities and image are in the children and 
grand children whose hearts you delight to 
wound by advertising with a scornful mouth, 
in your hell-born and hell-bound paper, the 
brainsoftening and dementing process which 
you say is now going on within in consequence 
of the physical misfortune of a father aud 
grand fattier. 

You, George, are a professor of religion. 
You belong to a Christian Church and hand 
around the bag for the coUectiua on the Sab- 
bath day, and j'et you are watched even in 
the discharge of this pious duty. 

As good a man as there is in this city, and 
as high in the Church, told me so. Is it possi- 
ble, Deacon, that your brethren in the Ch;irch 
are afraid that you would "with one hand put 
a penny in the urn of poverty aud with the 
other take a shilling out?" 



This is my fifth letter to you. In my next 1 
will make, if possible, developments more as- 
tounding, from official records, than any that 
have preceded it. 

Faithfully, Morrow B. Lowky. 



Xo. <i. 

The Senator «ocx for liic Deacon Onre 
.^lore— He ShoAvs up ^oinc of la is Of- 
flcia! Peculation!^- He UcniiiidH Iiim 
oi.>>onic Unpleasant TrurliM, and Ad- 
vises Iiini that lie lias a Few More 
Shots in Ueservc. 



Ilarrisburg, March 7, 1870. 

De.vcon Geokok Bergxkk:— '•Remember 
March, the Ides of March remeinbei." for days 
before ;md days after the 6th of that month, 
the anniversary of my own existence, I send 
those tokens to you, which you will never — no, 
never— forget. This morning I salute you 
again with hideous rows of figures, which 
please exp'.ain how they came to be found on 
the books of the Auditor-General. I give you 
the gross amount that it has cost of the hard- 
hande I sons of toil of the Keystone to keep in 
order aud retain a place f jr you to lobby and 
fatten upon the lax-payers. 'Remember, Dea- 
con, these items do not include the amounts 
paid the poor washerwomen and laboring men 
who keep clean and warm jour lobbies. Their 
pay comes in under an item of 'Legislative ex- 
penses,'* of which you have probably heard be- 
fore. 

The grounds of the Capitol of Pennsylvania 
are somewhat extensive. They contain about 
thirteen acres, — with a plain, substantially 
constructed brick State House, a Land Office 
of small dimensions, and a cheap office for the 
Secretary of the Commeuwealth, with an exe- 
cutive chamber over it. The grounds are in- 
closed by a strong iron fence and the buildings 
covered with metal, the expense of which was 
incurred tweniy years ago. On the grounds 
is an old arsenal, which, if it ever had any re- 
pairs done to if, came out of the military fund, 
aud does not enter into the accounts for which 
I am about to arraign you. There is also a 
monument on the grounds, the expense of the 
construction of which follows. There are 
men everywhere, mechanics in abundance, 
who have told me that they would be 
glad to take the contract of keeping 
tho building and grounds in repair lor any 
length of time for two thousand dollars a year, 
and do it in a neater and more satisfactory 
manner than is now done. These items are 
under the head of "Repairs to Capitol Grounds 
and Buildings." It is conr;eded by everybody 
that you have managed affairs at ihe Capitol 
since 1859. The expense to the State for "re- 
pairs to ))ublic buildings and grounds" in 1860 
was $5,330.21; in 18G1, $10,626.27; in 1862, 
$6.856.91;inlS63.$8,02'i.29;iS64:, $14,142.49; 
1865. §38,093.68; in 1866, $38,080.33; in 1867, 
$39,291.65; in 1868, $45,903.42; in 186;) 



$32,2G6.71. My experience i?, that to open 
lip the vouchers which are put on file to 
coi'or up these sums as well aa those of your 
other accounta, is hard to do. And some rich 
things are in store to be developed by way of 
Rub-rebuttinfic testimony, after you answer my 
serious and dama2;in<!; accusations. Let it be 
borne in mind that the Capitol extension, or 
what is known as Clymer's monument— and a 
cri'ditable one it is— cost $150,000, which does 
not enter intc any portion of these items, and 
on which I never thought that portion of the 
Rfpublican party to which you belong made a 
profit of more than 10 per cent, on the gross 
amount. Ii was more honestly conducted on 
the whole than anything of the kind ever done 
in your day at Harrisburg. 

Deacon Bergner, will you please inform the 
hard-fisted farmers of the Keysone and their 
wives, how your cows have thrived on grass cut 
and put in your barn and the barns of your 
friends, at the. expense of the State, off the 
giounds of the Capitol,and what has become of 
the carpeting and furniture which you fit and 
refit annually, and how much of the sura total 
ol $288,616 96— to say nothing of the other 
diippings of the Capitol — come to you as 
this part of your portion of the public plun- 
di^r, of which I have not spoken in ray former 
letters. The horrible expose. Deacon Bergner, 
which I have been compelled to make of you 
was not one of my own seeking; but "the Lord 
maketh the wrath of man to praise Him," for 
you, in your own paper, triumphantly declare 
that I sought, sent friends, to cause you to 
d<'si>t, but that I was a traitor to the republican 
party, and you would follow mp." I wrote to 
your master on the 18th of January, 1870, 
"that since I saw proper to vote as I did on 
the State Treasurer question, the Harrisburg 
lelegraph, a paper controlled by yourself, and 
ostensibly edited by one of the worst men that 
was ever associated with a legislative 'ring,' 
h'.a been following me with slander, the object 
ol which is to detract from my personal charac- 
ter and impair me in the good opinion of the 
public, for no other earthly reason than because 
1 would neither be bought nor driven into his 
corrupt designs. "With all sorrow, I swear I 
will not submit to this, and unless you forth- 
with call off this dog I will war against the 
whole of you." The dog was not cailed off. 
You continued to hound mo like a wounded 
stag, or a disabled "Butler county bull, with 
his horns sawed off." Deacon Bergner, a 
sound orthodox Republican and a bad 
man are incompatible, and cannot ex- 
ist in the same person at the same 
time and I have the evidence before me that 
you are unfaithful, and always have been, to 
ihe Government which you adopted and plun- 
dered, and untrue to your own soul and your 
neighbor's purse in regard to your sworn year- 
ly income tax return. You have compelled 
me to make history for you. I do it with sor- 
niw, in self defence, and I do it because 1 am, 
and not becau'^e I am not, a Rejiublican. I 
believe the party to which I belong must be 



purged or perish. My orthodox faith In its 
doctrines is deep, and runs down clear into my 
heart. Yours is deep down into your wallet, 
and goes where it leads you. Its immortal 
principles can never die. You never conceiv- 
ed them, Dor comprehended them. A man, to 
be a true Republican, must be an enthusiastic 
believer, not only in the principles of Thaddeus 
Sievens aud in John Brown, but Ih God and 
everlasting justice to all — even to Democrats 
honestly elected to high places. We must have 
an undying faith in all that is right, and fight 
for it because it is right, and condemn and spit 
upon all that is wrong, and he must fight against 
it and crush it with his heel because it is wrong. 
Weak Republicans we must feed upon milk; 
old harlots like you we must hew down with a 
broadax before the Lord. I knew what it was 
to balk you. I knew it was peril, and I know 
it was fire, but I took the chances. 

Deacon B'Tgner, I have before me a heavy 
recorded oath, under the seal of Berks county, 
that you made, "renouncing all princes and 
potentates, particularly the King of Hanover." 
If what you swore to there was true in regard 
to your age, daring the late Rebellion you 
cheated the Government out of two drafts. and 
the army out of an ornary, cowardly soldier 
with more ease than you would cheat the Devil 
out of your bones, or read me out of the Re- 
publican party. 

Deacon Bergner, I have before me a letter 
from the widow of a dead soldier officer, the 
truth of which is certified to by a Republican 
officer of the Government, dated March 26, 
1869. Both the widow and the dead hero are 
held in saint-like remembrance by all the neigh- 
bors round about who knew and loved them. 
This widow of a dead hero says, and so does 
her certifier, and so does her neighbors, that 
you defrauded her out of the post office at Har- 
risburg by lejiresenting at Washington, and 
falsely proving by witnesses, thatshehad with 
drawn her desire to obtain the place, and that 
you had agreed to pay her eight hundred dol- 
ars per year so long as you should bold the 
office. She charges you, and so do I, that you 
lied about her like athief to obtain the office 
ycmrself, and that you lied about yourself, lor 
you never paid her, you never will pay her, 
and you never intended to pay her anything 
whatever. Deacon! if John Brown heard 
you called a Republican he would rustle in his 
winding-sheet, and would burst the rocks where 
he lies to kick you! 

But I have other letters and proofs enough of 
which have come rushing in upon me since I 
have got into this contest, to fill your own be- 
loved Bccord, which, because I voted against 
and broke your cnud ring info a thousand 
liieces, you would stab me in my seat in tho 
Senate it you dared. Are you not glad that 
your infamous newspaper per.'ocutions on the 
"demented,'' "paralytic," '•brain-softened," 
"treacherous," "old man of the sea" got me 
into this job? I must close, to resume, George. 
How do you like it as far as I have gone? 
Morrow B. Lowrt. 



— . 



No. 7. 

Another Epistle to tlte Deacon— The 
senator Keviews lii« Personal lli«it'>ry 
past and present— WUJ' tUo New Coun- 
ty Bill was killed, and ^vUo killed 
i£. 

Harrirbukg, March Sth, 1870. 

DeaCox Gj:orgk: — 

This morniiiK the undorsigned was sort^ly in 
trouble, and is not yet without liis anxieties, 
teelins; the sadness tiiat ini(;ht liefall you, ifyou 
did not promptly receive his seventh (daily) 
epistle to you. 

M.y "head lights'' were missing, the papnr mulaid; 
For Ink, pea and wriiei- 1 looked hisiu and low; 
I feared you had stole them, but dear George it 
aint fo. 

The veritable same "head lights" were lost 
and found again, which you and your puro 
paper of the 24th of January says, that [ '-stole 
from the Erie light house." 

The hundreds of attacks which you have 
made upon me, with the exception of one class. 
never disturbed me. I never cared what you 
charged me with. In regard to your false alle- 
gations that I had bargained with the Demo- 
cracy and betrayed the Republican party. 
"Lies are hut short living creatures," and the 
short space of time which has already elapsed 
since you made these charges has vindicated 
me and condemned you; and the robberies 
which you alleged they baa agreed to aid mo 
in andl them to tho amount of millions has not 
yet taken place. 

The charge of traitor to the Republican par- 
ty beca<-.se I vot^d ai<aiust Mackey, has no ter- 
rors, whether coupled with or without the 
names of Kerr, Billiiigrelt and VVarfel (Sena- 
tors.) and Ames, Craig. McCraken, McCreary, 
Bowman, Wheeler, Buffington, Leslie, Wib^y. 
Rienoehl, Godschalk, Herr and Coray. of the 
House. 

Ifyou again dare to speak in your paper of 
jny bodily affliction, I will tell a tale that will 
mark your grave. Thus far I have kept strict- 
ly to your public life, professional praaiice and 
recorded villainies; and gloat not again in de- 
rision of God"s visitation to me a year ago. 
Speak not again to me as "an old triitor loo 
tteble from paralysis to support his body upon 
his logs;" neither again lick not up ttte spawn 
of another. 

It is true that I was a man afflicted, but it 
was and is good lor me, j^ood for the taxpayers 
of Pennsylvania, but bad lor you, Gooige. My 
affliction'was just, and I b-tw with humility. 
••Far.tlysis" is the effort of the soul to get rid of 
the body. In my case the soul is persistent, 
and the body resistant, but the will is impla- 
cable in ccinmanrting the place between them. 
The contest may last for years, or it may gra- 
tify you now, to have the pitcher broken ai tho 
well. The timbers upon the starboard are 
strained, the posts are as heavy as lead, the 
planks are water loged, the yard arm has fal- 
leo. I weep for it as I repeat it, yet thank God 



that the level and the compass are uninjured, 
and the trumpet is not even cracked yet. In the 
end the soul must triumph, and I care not how 
soon, could I take with me those dei)endent 
upon tne. if. you and mi^ii like you are to gov- 
ern when living and rob our children when 
dead, not only of their property, but of all 
public virtue. 

Had tlu' hulk not been battered by a raid to 
save fho life of John Brown by railroad disas- 
ters, by mob violence, by exposures upon bat- 
tle fields, and in dead houses, and the crushing 
weight of the storms of State, after inhaling the 
foul air of hospitals, and ytmr breath the soul 
would not so soon have made an effort to esca[)e 
from its mud house. Let my paralysis alone, 
for you are entirely sate from the same afflic- 
tion. 

A soul that could endure your body as long 
as the Children of Israel .were passing through 
the Red Sea, would always be contented to live 
on unsalted "Hanover pork," growing fat up- 
on still slops ct its own government plundered 
and governmetit seized. Bergner bailed whisky 
distillery at Uarrisourg,and is iron-clad agaiust 
paralysis. 

Deacon Bergner, this is a wonderful country. 
Your ancestors (and I speak of this as the 
most creditable page in the history of your 
family,) I am informed, about sevcmty years 
ago, were slaves in the old w<irld in coal-pits 
and in salt-mine»<, laboring sixteen hours of the 
twenty-four, and subsisting upon oat-raeal and 
pea-soup. When the coal-pits and salt-pits 
changed hands, they were transferred with the 
mines and the mules. Not only your fathers, 
but ail similarly situated with them, each wore 
a collar riveted around their necks with their 
owner's name and clan engraved upon it, and 
they were iis well known, and more respected 
than the statute of corruption, that stinks and 
laughs and laugtis and stinks about our lobby. 
Take compassion upon lue. George, in my 
misfortune. Look at the honorable hole from 
whence you yourself were digged and whose 
fathers you have disgraced. If your ancestors, 
either of them, had torn the collar from off his 
neck, V would not have been any greater of- 
fence against the criminal laws of that day, 
than I have committed against tho laws of par- 
ty organization and State robbers. It is true 
that ihey were not protected as the laws of 
Pennsylvania protect you from the possibility 
of legal exposure, much lessof condign pun- 
ishment. 

As a party of Republican leaders, character- 
destroyers, a» moral lepers, as State thieves, as 
soul-sellers, and soul-destroyers has placed in 
tho hands of a descendant of coal and salt-pit 
i«laves, the cleaving-axe of a pany press, of ex- 
ecration and death in Us hcnd, to destroy sud- 
denly and violently, and ignominously, all who 
are not corruptible, and to bury them at the 
cross-roads of public indignation, and 
have a stake driven through their 
body by a hungry Hessian, as a warning to 
others not to follow them. I have the evidence 
belore me of other divers little, yet horrible 



10 



transactions of public peculation and forgeries 
to plunder the state which I desist from giving 
till I hear from you. 

You charge mo in your paper with making 
a bargain with the Democracy in regard to a 
new county, with its seat at Titusville. I deny 
it. 1 will prove to you before I am done that 
there is a good dealof human nature in a De- 
mocrat. The Democracy voted with me in the 
Senate for a now county for legitimate reasons; 
whether good ones or not, parties always fol- 
low them. The Republicans to punish me for 
not voting for Mackey, and because I would 
allow a Senator who was honestly elected, re- 
gularly certified to take his seat, conspired 
ogainst mo on my new county bill, with the 
exception of the Lancaster county senator and 
Gen. Kerr; and this of itself would have been 
two sufficient causes for all the Democrats of 
the Senate to support me. Kerr stood by me 
and was abused tor it like a thief; Billingfelt 
and Warfel went back upon me to keep a con- 
sistent record, that they might not be guilty of 
the same inconsistency and shame as oth<'r Se- 
nators. Wallace followed my bill into the House, 
and it is true, told his political friends that 
"this new county question was a cancer that 
would oat out the vitals of the Republican 
party in Crawford county," and they must 
hold it where it was. This had its effect, and 
you, George, at two hundred dollars a head 
• drank out of the same coffee pot with Wal- 
lace" and did the rest of the work. You 
did it before. You and your associates did it 
last year. You strangled it in a pool of corrup- 
tion in Committee in the house, after it had 
passed the Senate. A year before you and 
your associates killed it in the Senate, and of- 
fered Mr. Neal and other gentlemen from Ti- 
tusville to reconsider it and pass it tor a price. 
And this is the way that the blG;?sings of civil 
government for the people of Titusville, have 
been knocked up and knocked down by your 

Had Mr. Neal and his associates given the 
conspirators what they demanded of them, 
which I am told was eight thousand dollar3,you 
would have followed it in the other branch of 
the Legislature, and killed it there, unless they 
had paid your ring three times that amount. 

I now pay my respects Ic men of your ilk, 
clothed briefly wiih legislative authority, by a 
poem sent to mo by an unknown hand, which I 
adopt, and with my compliments respectfully 
dedicate to you and ttiom. 

"The man who takes a bribe would strip the dead, 
"Or rob the orphan of his crust of bread; 
"80 lost to justice, eiiiiily and rii^ht, 
■'Th'8 man would Hteal itio aged widow's mite. 
"Is well prepared foi every kind of Jraud, 
"Wouldsell his country, or beuay his God, 
••Pillage the palace ol the Kinsol' Kings, 
"Or strip the gildint? from an angel's wings. 
"On sad events, now pass nj,', do rellect; 
"Freemen, be firm, and sleru, and circumspect. 
"Let none be trusted who for office pants, 
"To pamp r vulgar artiiicJal wants. 
"Let every Idle, vain and vicious drone 
''Live, if he can, but trust not such a one. 
''Kemember what Time's faithful record salth, 
»' Thai Carthage fell, and fell bj "runic faith." 



"The man who Is unfaithful to a trust, 
"However small, is vitally unlust; 
"And he who is uninst in little things, 
"Would be a villlan in the court of Kiiiza. 
"Piesent a bribe, and down his virtue falls, 
"In court, or camp, or legislative halls, 
"'1 he bribea— apostate blot hi? hateful name 
"From each ana every scroll of honest fame. 
"Let no man trust him; none lorbear to shed 
"Contempt, and deep dishonor, on h s head. 
"Let scorn still point her finger and her .jibes. 
"And say "Behold the consequence of bribea." 
'•]jetguiless children, as he passes by, 
"Shrink from his touch, and shudder at his eye. 
"Let lovely woman loathe him with disgust, 
"And shun him like the reptile in the duet; 
"A" d, whilst he li^e^ lei infamy alone, 
"Claim the bribed legislator as her own ; 
"Dntil he dies and sink into the grave, 

"To pnison worms that feed upon the knave. 

' There, midst the storms let hodeous furies fonl, 

"Hold nightly revels, and in concert howl ; 

"Let hissing serpents make that spot their home, 

"And be the waichful guardians of his tomb; 

"And when he goes to Hell, let Devils stare, 

"And ask him who the Devil sent him there? 

"And feel the insult, deep, seveie, and keen, 

'•To see a fiend preemineuily mean. 

"Midst better Deviia rudely uauered in, 

"A loul, appallng jirodigy of sin; 

•^And iu Ilell's fiercest, hotte?t furnace crammed. 

"Let him bo damned,— superlatively damned: 

"And why not damned for such tiancendent crimes, 

"Yoa, damned eternally, ten thousand times!' 

I had intended to show you. Deacon Berg- 
ner, what excellent material was in you to 
ressurrect the Native American Party; but I 
must desist. The bint may be useful however. 
It was also my intention to devote a letter to 
your hide-and-seek practices, with the editors 
of two Gazettes in the western part of the State, 
l^had intended to show that those two papers, 
through your aid, had robbed the State at 
large, of an improvement worth more than two 
hundred millious to her, and had destroyed 
property iu their respective cities to a vast 
amount; at least they have done this for the 
time being, and we will never know the amount 
of labor that it will cost to repair the damages 
which they have done. 

To-morrow. Deacon Bergner, I intend to 
defend myself against the attacks of you and 
your crew who have lied about me in regard 
to the ScuU-Findlay case. I must now (tor 
to-day) como to an abrupt conclusion with 
you. 

Faithfully yours until death. 

MuRROW B. LowKT. 



No. 8. 

The Senator Receives Tokens of Affec- 
tion— He Koturns the Compliment 
with InlcreMt— >11s 0|>inioii of our 
Koprcsentative— History of the Scull- 
Findlay Case— Action 0% Republicans 
Vindicated. 



Harrisburo, March 9th, 1870. 
Dear Deacon Bergner: — 

IJpoa crawling out of bed this morning, I 
found my mail had been sent to my room, and 
among it were two newspapers, both of which 
were called the "■ Ilarrishurtj Evening Tek' 



11 



graph," which a dear old friend had returned 
to me, being tokens of affection that you have 
been lurniahing to my constituents. 

Oi the contents of one of these newspapers 
1 will speak now. Of the other I may speak 
hereafter. It is dated the 2Gth of Jan- 
uary, 1870. I find in it the loUowing classical 
and sweet scented extract, a part of which I 
give you: It reads as follows. "7'/ie Traitor 
Lowry fears us; he must be shoivut up at the 
hazard of the Republican Party, however much 
his physical i)iti7'mities and the mental condition 
of the lunatic, may have heretofore stayed our 
hand." 

"T7ie hoiTible old debauc?iee is insane." ^'He 
wants to go to Congress," '7ie wants a foreiyrt 
mission." '■'he wants Brewster made Attorney 
General." ''With a culture's eye he sees the 
action of Congress respecting the 
Mormon Exodus from their pleasant 
homes, and his sordid lieart becomes 
ravenous." ^^ The desired opportunity for re- 
venge against a party who reicarded him loith- 
ont merit, presented itself in the case of Scull vs. 
Findley. Ilis corruption, his ignorance, his in- 
solence, his blasphemy, was as active as a luna- 
tic's could be. in prejudging the case and preju- 
dicing it." In this '-Morrow B. Lowry has de- 
fiantly left the Republican Party, with the dev- 
elish malignily of an itnclean spirit." 

The '•traitor Lowry," my dear Deacon, has 
been giving evidences for some days past, that 
he is in horrible dread of you. and you will 
never forget that he fears yoti; but the '■Luna- 
tic," 1 apprehend you will concede, has "meth- 
od in his madness." "I am not insane, most 
noble Festus, but speak the words of truth and 
soberness" to a noble party who 
has liberated four millions of slaves, but has 
wiihin itself festering elements which the last 
hope of the world must get rid of or it will 
Rtink UB all to death. 

You are mistaken, Dear Deacon, in saying 
that I want to go to Congress. My district is 
r epresented by a man as cold and as pure 
as all the ice that Seward purchased 
in Alaska. He is an honest man, — 
he is an able man, and with him I am 
coBtent if George H. Cutler, William W. Reed. 
Orange Noble. W. Benson, J. H. Walker and 
Jas. Sill are. Honest men are wanted in Con- 
gress; a few of them here are a luxury that 
you most dread. 

As to the ''foreign mission," even one to the 
Court of St. James,if offered me. Dear Deacon, 
I could not, for manifest pihysieal reasons ac- 
cept. My affection for you is so sincere, that 
if I remain on earth and in public lite it shall 
be with jon— "the undersigned will never 
leave or forsake thee." 

I know. Deacon, that your care for me is so 
great that altho -'demented and unable to stand 
upon my feet," you would be glad to get me to 
the Court of St. James, and your arms again 
up to the elbows in the Treasury that you 
have robbed. Shamefully! Shamefolly! 
SHAMEFULLY! robbed. ' 
Brewster, in my judgment, would make an 



Attorney-General second to no man in this 
country; but he should not make the sacrifice; 
he is great, and struggling Cuba needs him and 
religious and civiljliberty would be the better off 
were he in Grant's Cabinet as Secretary of 
State. With my "vulture's eye," and ''serdid 
heart," I might long to rob the Mormons of 
their beautiful homes, and, if you please, of a 
hundred farms; but 1 am not the man to be 
sent upon such an errand. 1 am fit for noth- 
ing but to watch you, your co conspirators and 
the Kingdom of Heaven, and really I am not 
lit for that. Those tarms of the Mormons. I 
am told, are very tempting, and I am so cor- 
rupt that 1 would not play l\iir and divide. 
There are fine farms with great brick houses 
and Dutch barns in Lancaster, Lebanon, and 
Dauphin, and all along up the Juniata and 
Susquehanna; and when you get these old "re- 
cords," Deacon. I will have something more to 
say about the farms and the blooded sheep, 
horses, men and heifers that pastured thereon. 
I will try to show that the men who made 
those early "Records,'' Deacon, which you 
threaten me with, were better men than you 
are, but unfortunately for you, Deacon, died in 
the Penitentiary. 

But this is a digression from the object of this 
letter. 

Now, for the Scull-Findley case," and 
"my desired opportunity for revenge against a 
a party that had rewarded me without merit," 
and my "defiant leave-taking from the Re- 
publican Party with devilish malignity." 

It has, particularly since the breaking out 
of the Rebellion, grown into a vicious practice, 
both in Congress and the several States, in 
cases of contested election, that the dominant 
party in contested election cases elected the 
party's favorite. Whether the people did or not, 
was of secondary consideration. 

This great, this growing, and this shameful 
evil, if 1 have done anything towards abating, 
I have rendered more service to my country 
than it is probable you or your back- 
ers will ever do. 

The practice leads to all that is evil, and 
nothing that is good; and men engaged in 
your profession are more active in its intro- 
duction and execution than they have ever 
been to advance the purity of the elective fran- 
chise, or the good of the party they disgrace by 
belonging to it. In the Senate of Pennsylva- 
nia, this year, there were two cases of contest- 
ed elections; that of Scull versus Findley. and 
Diamond versus Watt. It was my misfor- 
tune to be drawn upon both of these Commit- 
tees. A single objection would have 
stricken my name from either of them. 
This objection was not made, and 
I proceeded with the other members ©f the Com- 
mittee, after being duly sworn, to discharge 
the duties thereof with fidelity. 

The case of .Scull versus Findley is decided, 
and I am at liberty to speak of it. That of 
Diamond versus Watt is yet undisposed of, and 
it would be improper in me to say more in re- 
gard to it. 



12 — 



In the Findley-SctiU case I will speak "with 
malice towards none and in charity for all." 
I had no acquaintance with Mr. Scull, the Re- 
publican, neither had I any with Mr. Findley 
the democrat. I was invited to a caucus ot 
the Republicans the day before that fixed by 
the Constitution of Pennsylvania for the or- 
ganization of the Legislature. On entering I 
found a strange i^entleman speaking, and I 
soon learned Irom his discussion that it was 
Mr. Scull, who was teaching senators how to 
pet himself into the senate and how to keep 
Mr. Findley out. I knew, not only from news- 
paper reports but the published official returns 
therein, that Mr. Findley held the regular 
certificate of election and was therefore law- 
luUy entitled to his seat. I considered Mr. 
Scull's presence in the caucus when some of 
us would be sworu to well and 
truly try his case. highly improper, 
and 1 ventured promptly so to express 
myself. I was given to understand that the 
court ''understood herself," and if I objected 
they could get along very comlurtably without 
my assistance. I was indignant aud left the 
caucus. The uext day the Secretary of the 
Commonwealth, immediately upon the Senate 
(which is a parpoiual body) being called to 
order by the si)eaker. delivered to 
us the official returns. Ten Senators who held 
the game kind of certificates, returned thnuigh 
the same channels, were sworn in, and Mr. 
Findley was shoved aside.yot he held the samo 
evidence of the right to his seat which every 
Senator in that body was admitted upon, I will 
not even speak of t!ie '-Peter Funk" one horse 
certificate of Mr. Scull. 

A resolution was then oflFered by Senator 
White, that a committee of three be appointed 
to decide whether Mr. Findley or Mr. Scull 
was entitled to the seat, prhna facie. 
Against this unheard of, dishonest and uulaw- 
lul proceeding, 1 protested with all the warmth 
of my nature. 

The resolution was carried, and the commit- 
tee alter hatching and haggling over a new pa- 
tent to make Senators, reported that Mr. Scull 
the Republican, should be sworn in, and that 
Mr. Findley mi^ht contest il be chose. On the 
resolution being read 1 shocked your party 
and "blasphemed" because I made a 
remark— addressed to no. one, "there w^-i 
silence in heaven for the space oi hall an hour" 

Be it remembered that the act of assembly, 
and the practices ot all deliberative bodies, as 
old as the ballot ilself, were by this action 
struck a dastardly blow between the eyes, by 
back-scarred party "ring" boned Republicans. 

The report of the Committee had been kept 
back, aud Mr. Fiiidley's time to make the 
contest with specifications which iinder the law 
must be within ten days, was delayed until but 
two days of bis tim^wou Id be left to contest in. 
I denounced Mr. Scull and his backers, of which 
you are the ]U'incipal conspirator.aud from the 
worst ot motives, as attempting to get a Re- 
publican into the Senate, not through tho law- 
ful cbaBUplS; but thrgy^'U his climbing up upon 



the shoulders of a party that never can aflford 
to violate law. 

Mr. Billingfelt voted with me and with the 
democrats, wQich defeated the infamous report 
of the Committee, and Mr. Findley was sworn 
in, as he ought to have been without hesita- 
tion on the first day of session. 

During the pendency of these proceedings, in 
answer to a letter, the late Attorney General 
Benjamin Harris Brewster, an bonest man and 
Republican from principle, declared thai I 
was not only right, but that any other course 
had within it the seeds of anarchy, and of the 
party's death that dare practice it. 

In the meantime I went to Philadelphia be- 
fore Mr. Findley was sworn in, aud as the case 
could not come before the Supremo Court, I had 
no hesitation in conversing with mv old and 
valued friend, the Chiel Justice ot Pennsylva- 
nia, and the Hon. M. Hazleherst. and other 
pur(> and good men, honorable and good Re- 
publicans, — who scorned this revolutionary and 
unscrupulous attempt 'o place unlawfully a 
man in power, who, as proven by the jyapers, 
then and the investigation since, was uot elect- 
ed. The papers of Mr. Findley were honest 
papers, had come to us through the only legal 
channels known to the law and to custom; but 
if his papers had been Ibrgeries coming through 
the channels they did, we had no right to in- 
quire into it other than through a Committee 
of seven, lawfully drawn, lawfully organized 
and lavvlully sworn. 

For so doing and because I would not per- 
jure myself to give Mackey a vote and tho ring 
a recruit, your paper could not coin woids vilo 
enough to appiy to me. 

Mr. Findley look his seat and Mr. Scull be- 
came the contestant. A jury was drawn, of 
which 1 was one, and the trial proceeded. 

There lie upon my table something less than 
half a bushel of extracts which I cut Irom your 
paper, denouncing me at every step, as un- 
willing to go to Johnstown where witnesses 
were accessible, aud that 1 was throwing every 
embarrassment in the way to prevent Mr. 
Scull from receiving a fair and impartial trial. 
You charged me many times when my lips 
were sealed and I did not speak, with betray- 
ing tho Republican Party, on the Committee 
to siille investiijation. 

Thank God, I can now spe-.k and vindicate 
myself Irom the record before an impartial 
world. 

In the investigation that followed, there was 
nothing occurred of sufficient importance to 
call the yeas and uays, excetitiu nine instan- 
ces. An examination of the yeas aad najs in 
our journal when it is published, is the only 
vindication that I want. 

You, George Bergner, denounce the Com- 
mittee as " a Star Chamber" one, and that I 
had conspired wiih the Democracy in the dark 
to keep a man in his seat whom the people had 
never elected. 

The first two resolutions that came before 
the Committee, it will be seen from the journal, 
related to striking out matter fiom the peiiiiou 



— i: 



of Mr. Skull, vital, it is said, to substantiating 
his riulu. to a s-eal in the S<'nat«. In both iii- 
i^tances. I vott^d with ibe Republicans on the 
CoMiniitu^e, and' ayninsi. s'likiufj; (^iii anythiufj;. 
The nu'iits and thu truth were what I sought to 
<^)btain. 

Tho next repolulion for a call of the yens 
and nays, is btfoie lue, and in the followinf 
words : 

That the commillee t-hall Lcroaftor sit with 
ojieu doois, and all quesiions shall be decidtul 
by yeas and nays, and ttie C'leil; shall keep a 
lull record of iho same. 

The tollowing was ihe vote ujion the resolu- 
tion : 

Messrs Lowry. Linderman and Rundall in its 
fivo , and Mi ssrs Allen, Brown, Osttrhout and 
lirooKe iigainst it. 

If liisSaiauic Majes'y, by solemn prool:-,ma- 
tiou had called a world's convention of knaves 
and liars, and commissioned you, Deacon 
George iSergner. as President of tie same, with 
lull power to selecf Mackey for Treasurer, and 
(Lo arreatest liar in all the vast mnltitude for 
iSecretaiy. there could not have been devised 
or invented accusations more false or wicked 
than your or}i:an has niadr agaiiist me. 

The next call lor tue yeas and nays, are on 
the following: 

•'That fraud sha'l not be presumed, but the 
contestant or tlie sitting member shall have ti;e 
Jullest tipportuuity to make the charge of 
fi and. or illegal voting, and the most amrde 
opportunity shall be given him by the commit- 
t. e to prove the same accoidiug to the rules 
of law and the specifications before us, and 
the whole force and power of the Stale shall 
be given him to obtain any testimony he may 
desire." 

It may be proper here to state, that the only 
pretense lor geltiHg up the Peter Funk, illegal, 
unsworn i)arty conimittee of three in ihe Sen- 
ate, consised in a technical error of the return 
judges of Allegheny towasbip, Bedford county, 
and in regard to ihis the committee disposed 
of it by the following resolution, which was 
carried by ihe vote of Messrs. Brown, Lowry, 
Lindeiman and Kandal: 

"That because the township of Allegheny, 
by a mistake of its officers, returned the tally 
paper instead of the regular certificate of elec- 
lion. that, of jtself, should not be a sufficient 
cause to oust the sitting member; and that the 
return (;f the tally paper and the substitution 
»;■ the ]iroper one was a i)iactical correction of 
a manifest error, and it should not oust the 
sitting member merely because it did not ar- 
rive befoie twelve o'clock at night on the re- 
iiirn fl'iy biit. thnt s)ll alleiTatifms of fraud in 
the election of said township should be fully 
inves: igated and all illegel votes, if any are 
proved, shall be thrown out." 

Messrs. Allen, Osterbout and Brooke, as in 
duty bound, voied against it and were con- 
scientious jurors. 

Whoever will read the whole proceedings 
of this Committee which will soon be laid be- 
fore the public, cannot fail to ditcover that 



Mr. Scull, from the very inception of the case, 
desired to have certain lawful cirizcMis who vote 
disfranchised, particularly in Ihe township of 
Conemauiih where it appears that a niimbt^r of 
Republicans rebelled, and voted as (iod, their 
conscience the Constilutiou and tho law allow- 
ed them to do; and they were entitled to the 
protection of the law and a secret ballot with- 
out Ihe fear ef ihe party lash from a liepubli- 
can edihir. A knave who votes illegally, can 
be compelled to disclose for whom bo voteO; 
an honest voter alone is protected from inquis- 
iliorial investigation. 

The following '•osolution which is nut only 
good law, but good morals, took him between 
wind and water, and as he said himscdf. was 
a fatal blow to the end of the in\e-tigation ; 

'•That the right of a lawful citizen to vote a 
secret ballot cannot be questioned, nor should 
a lawful citizen be called upon to disclose for 
whom he votrd. The mere proving of himself, 
by himself, to be a citizen, should not exclude 
the othia- party from proving that he waj not 
one; and when proved that his vote was ille- 
gal, then, and not until then, shall he be re- 
quired to stale for whom he voted, which vote 
should be deducted from tho vote of the one 
for whom it was cast." 

This i)osiiion was carried by my vote, and 
was my ow a work. 

There had been something said in the speci- 
fication of Mr. Scull, relative to certain votes 
in the Poor Houses. Mr. Findley upon h's 
part, dixied investigation, and it looked at one 
time, as though the paupers from three county 
poor-houses, would be brcnight to Harrisburg 
at the expense of the Stale; and to define what 
I believe to be the law, aiid to give notice 
whom they might properly subpoena, I offered 
the following resolutions: 

'•That neither poverty nor riches constitute 
the qualifications of a voter, and the mere fact 
that a man is a pauper, and lives in the pool - 
house, does not disfranchise him, provided he, 
in all other respects, has complied with the 
law and tho Constitution of the State and of 
the UniTed Stales; and the same rules and laws 
that govern the qualification of citizens re- 
siding in palaces should govern that of tho oc- 
cupants of almshouses and poor-bouses." 

This was adopted by the same vote as the 
preceeding ones. 

The returns from Conemaugh township show 
that Mr. Scull had run behind his ticket in a 
strong Republican township, and where the of- 
ficers of election were, every man of them. Re- 
publican; and he pif^posed to subpoena nearly 
two hundred Republicans from that township 
to prove that they v\'ere all true, faithful and 
luyal ])arty men, and had voted for him; but it 
has come out since the investigation closed, 
that the counsel for Mr. Findley had in bis 
})Ocket the certificates of sixteen Republi- 
cans who s^iid they would swear that they vo- 
ted for Mr. Findley the Democrat, and for 
Gov. (Jleary the Re2)uolican. 

The following proposition which I submitted, 



_ 14 _ 



Mr. Scull said, cut his whole case up by tho 
loots. 

'^ That tho fact that Mr. Scull, a Republican, 
ran bobind his ticket thirty-tbree vo'es and 
tbat Mr. Fiiidlev, a Democrat, ran abend of his 
ticket thirty-three vote?, in Con- nmugh town- 
f^bip, is no evidence of fraud, neither is it fair 
to presume it. because the efiicers of the elec- 
tion in that township, it is conceded, were all 
Republicans, and that if fraud be charged the 
ballot l)ox«s should be sent tor, the ballots 
counted, and the ofScers subpoenaed and sworn 
before tuiw coujmiiU'e, and that thc^ whole body 
of the Republican voters will be subpoenaed if 
fraud is proved." 

This was adopted by the followino: vote : 
Veas, Messrs. Lovvry, LindermaH, Uiown and 
Randall; nays, Messrs. Allen, Osterhout and 
ISrooke, who, no doubt wert; patriotic party 
men. 

You, George Bergnor, have made dirty an 
immense amount of white paper, declaiming 
that the committee would not go to Johnstown, 
nor do any other act or thing, to prove the 
undue election of Mr. Findley, and tte fraudu- 
lent voting, and you ran about the streets 
shedding great crocodile tears as large as your 
feet, and your paper bellowed hugely Lowry 
•'the traitor to the Republican Party; and that 
he had sought to stifle investigation and 
'•(^fused to go to Johnstown, Hear the homes of 
tlieir witnesses." 

Now, the record 'shows that I oftcred the 
following resolution, and the sinners on the 
committee voted for it. and the saints against 
it, by precisely the same vote of tho last! 

That this committee will go to .Jshnstown or 
elsewhere within the Commonwealth, if re- 
ijuested by contestant to do so. to hear evidence 
on the basis presented, and that every case 
of fraud or undue election shall be investiga- 
ted. 

There were a large number of witnesses 
called. There were two votes that were pro- 
bably illegal; this however, is doubtful, but 
Mr. Scull got the benolit of thera, Mr. scull's 
indecent letter on withdrawing from the con- 
test was returned by a unanimous consent to 
him. Mr. Findley allcgini that ho could prove a 
great many moie illegal voles than his opponent 
Jiaddone, being only two; but after Mr. SchU 
abandoned his case at a cost to tho state of an 
inimonsc amount of money and much valuable 
iii:te, $000 of the money of tho state went in- 



to Scull's own pocket. Mr. Findley, of course, 
did not press the point of producing any wit- 
nesses. 

Let us now for a moment return. Mr. Find- 
ley. on being .'worn in. Mackf-y lost a voie 
thereby. Your immediale pressing necessifies. 
Dear George, were very great, as the Stah; 
Treasurer was te be elecied the next day. 

Your greasy and benign face, which up t(* 
this time was iengest across it. became sudden- 
ly reversed, and up and down l)ecame as long 
and as lovely as a mule's. Billingfeh'.s vote 
for Findley, and my vote and preaching, had a 
hiimanizing effect upon the Democracy, and 
developed the fact of which I have previously 
stated, that there really was "a good deal ef 
hurHan nature in a Democrat, and is proof 
that 

"Whilst the limp holds out to burn, 
' The vilest sinner may returu,'' 

For all fell ints line and voted with us for 
Irwin, as good a Rtjpublican ad there is in the 
State. 

I will d0 you the credit to say here, that 80 
more liu^e and respectable convention «f Slate 
robbers with you again as their President, with 
banker's and editors lor their officers ever a^-sem- 
bled at the capitol of Pennsylvania, than on 
this occasion. 

I will, at my earliest convenience, review 
and publish these letters in pamphlet form. I 
have made more damaging accusations against 
you. sustained by official records, than was ever 
made against any public plunderer in our day. 
Your defense of yourself by charging me of 
robbing the Erie Gompany(a corporation) when 
all I ever obtained from it was for work and 
labor done, aad that at the end of the law, and 
where such men as the late J. W.Fairley — one 
of the most distinguished Senators that Penn- 
sylvania ever had. the late Hon. John Mitchell 
— a distinguished Ex-Member of Conirress, and 
for many years Canal Commissioner of Pa., the 
late and deeply lamented Hon. Arnold Plum- 
er, and men of this character, were the jurors 
who decided in my favor, and where Judgt? 
Pearson and Judge Thompson were my counsel, 
i-^ the most remarkal:)le case on record of yoiir 
shameless villainy, and proves you totally 
destitute of truth. 

As ever, 
MoRi:ow P>. Lo\yRT. 



APPENDIX 



Ex- Attorney GMicral Brewster 

ON TIIK 

findlay-scull case. 



?le Sustains Senator I^owry'j* 8''<>sit8oii, 

uttd SI)o\v<! that iU r. Fiixliay i;^ 

Entitled to the Seat. 



The subjoined letter, from the Hon. Benja- 
min Harris Brewster, late Attorney General 
of Pennsj'lvania, has been received I)y Sena- 
tor Lowry. It will be seen that Mr. Brews- 
ter regards Mr. Findlaj- as clenrlj' entitled to 
llic seat in the Senate, prima facie, for the 
Twentieth Senatorial district. The letter 
-needs no comment. It speaivs for itself: 

70() Walxctt St., Pnii>,VBKArniA, 
January 7, 1870. 
J/y Dear Mr. Lowry .-—I am so occupied 
that I cannot answer you as freely as I wonld 
like to do. However, the whole question is 
within a very narrow compass and will not 
admit of much elaborate discussion. You 
ask me if you have taken the right ground, 
and j'ou say you are anxious not to go astray. 
You have not gone astraj^ You are right. 
Party has nothing to do with this. Princi- 
ple alone must be considered, or confnsiim 
.and legislative anarchy will be the result. 
The matter has been determined over and 
over. Indeed, no precedent can be found to 
uphold the proposed course. The man who 
holds the certificate is the elected man, and 
entitled to his seat. Those who dispute his 
certiticate must contest. No legislative body 
can be organized on any other princijtle. 
The return judges having certified b}- a ma- 
jority that A was duly elected, A muat take 
the seat. If B has a dissenting opinion from 
one judge, or a minority, that no more enti- 
tles him to the seat than it would give a citi- 
zen a judgment in a court of law when the 
majority of the court had resolved tlu^ other 
way. In either case the remedy is by appeal. 
In the meantime the occupant holds, or he 
must be ejected by judgment in the whole 
case as presented to the higher court, and 
tliat "court in this case is the committee .is 
provided by law. But there is no occasion 
to illustrate by analysis in this case.the law 
— the law is imperative, and to revoke it for 
the mere purpose of upholding party supre- 
macy, or from any legislative whim, must be 
destructive of all true legislative orgauiza- 

tiOD. 

Some j^ears ago I gave an opinion of a 
like character in Judge King's case, and ho 
was commissioned, ^tr. W. L. Hirst united 
with me in that opinion. The pai)ers you 
can get do doubt in the Secretary's ofliee, 
and so I decided in the Covodc and Foster 
case. 



Consistent action and stiict adheveheo lo 
tlie law is essential in such cases. The meth- 
od of solving such disputes is a part of par*- 
Inmciitary history in England, and the con rsc 
provided was adoptiil after much contention, 
and has been accepted as the wise, just and 
imi)arlial way, and being accepted ])rocured 
tranquility on a subject which before was the 
caa.se of much injustice. Tlie law, as it has 
been applied to vach gentleman who now 
holds his seat in your body, must be applied 
to this case, or you will all of you "go astray.'* 
Truly yoTU' friend, 

BEN.tAMIN UaUKIS BrEWSTKI!. 

To Hon. M.B. Lowry, Senate, Harrisburg, 
Pa. 



PnlT.ADEt.PHIA, 706 Waiatt St., \ 
February 7, 1870. S 

T^ the Hon. A. H. Coffroth .•— Dear Sni:— 
I will answer your questions in the order in 
which you proposed them. 

Fii'st, Can the question be asked of a wit- 
ness, for whoni did you vote for Senator? un- 
til it is first decided by the committee that 
he is not a qaulitied voter? 

Answer — Before a voter can be thus inter- 
rogated it must be proved that he was an il- 
legal voter. The act nf assembly expressly 
d("c1ares the law to be so — act of July 3, 
1839, p. 1. 550, section 143, and there has 
been an express judicial decision on this sub- 
ject, to be found in 4th Penna. Law Journal, 
p. 348, in tlie case of the contested election 
of Ward. If the statute were not so, 

the CoBStitution, article 3, section 2, express- 
ly prescribes that all election i shall be b.y 
ballot. To re(|uire a citizen, therefore, who 
is a legal voter to disclose for whom he vot- 
ed would be a violation of this clause of the 
Constitution. If he is no legal voter, and 
that is proved, and he did vote, he is not 
within the protection of the Constitution. 
That protects the secret of the lawful voter. 
The unlawful voter has no protection because 
he has no right to protect. He has perpetra- 
ted a fraud. 

Second. When the petition all'fges that in 
Conemaugh township thirty-three legnl and 
qualified electors cast their ballots for Ed- 
ward Scull for tho ofliee of Senator, which 
said ballots were received, deposited in tiie 
ballot-box, counted and returned for Hiram 
Pindlay, whereby the same were lost to the 
said Edward Scull, is it legal and proper for 
the committee to hear secondary evidence by 
calling the electors and asking tor whom 
they voted for Senator, or should the com- 
mittee require the primary evidence, that is, 
examine the tickets in the ballot-box and 
hear the sworn testimony of the election offi- 
cers ? 



— 16 — 



Ynswcr— The committee are as much 
bouud Uv tlie established rules of evidence 
as any judicial tribunal ; lirst, because those 
lules conform to sound reason ; second, l)e- 
cause thev are rules established by law- 
universal, uniform and equal in their applica- 
tion— and to dei-art from them would l)e un- 
reasonable and unjust, and would unsettle 
established authoritv, producing uncertainty 
and sctllino- or unsettling public rights and 
])ublic duties by arbitrary whim or caprice, 
or by parti/.an feeling. Secondary evident^ 
never can be received unless primary evi- 
dence cannot be obtained, and the reason tor 
not producing the primary evidence must be 
satisfactorily proved, and that reason must 
be a full and siiHicieut one to warrant the ad- 
mission of secondary evidence; and if the 
])rimary evidence be in the possrssion of an 
individual and it or his testimony cannot be 
l)rocured ; if he refuses to answer ; if he pre- 
varicates, conceals, or misleads the party 
calling ; if he suppresses documents or pa- 
i>ers within his possession, or if it be writ- 
ten evidence that is lost, mislaid, suppressed 
or destroyed, and all or any of these tacts are 
jjroven to the satisfiiction of a tribunal in- 
vestigating a question, then secondary evi- 
dence may be given, and not till then. 

The case, as you state it, is covered by 
tins rule. The proper and only way to es- 
tablish the fact asserted in the speciticatiou 
would be to examine the tickets, to hear the 
sworn statements of the election officers. 
They are the b^st evidence that the case is 
capable of, and it is the cardinal rule of evi- 
dence that the best should be given. If the 
tickets are destroyed, and that destruction 
is proved ; if the election officers refuse to 
appear, or, api)earing, refuse to answer, or 
answering, satisfy the committee that they 
have a flagrant determination to evade, pre- 
varicate and conceal, so as to pervert the 
truth and prevent a fair investigation, then 
secondary evidence may be given, and not 
till then." 

Tuird. Is a poor man (pauper in a county 
poor house) a (lualitied elector in the poor 
house election district, although said poor 
man (pauper) had been sent there from an- 
other election district provided he is a white 
freeman, a citizen of the United States, and 
has resided in this State at least one year, 
and in the election district where he offers 
to vote at least ten diiys immediately preced- 
ing such election, and within two years paid 
a State or county tax, which shall have been 
assessed at least ten days before the election, 
and has been registered V 

Answer— Such a person is a qualified 
elector and can vote, and bis vote cast is a 
lawful vote and as good as any man's vote, 
and it ought to be so. The constitution es- 
tablishes tills, and it does not disqualify him 
because he is poor. That does not deprive 
him of his freedom or his citizenship. The 
necessities of li:e tJ^t ha\e driven him to 



seek relief do not degrade him below the 
level of a manhood and strip him of an in- 
alienable right which the law does not refuse 
to the convicted felon. All are freemen now, 
and all citizens of the United States, who«re- 
side permanently within the Commonwealth 
for one year and pay their taxes, are citizens. 
They are amenable'to the law, and being so. 
upon the very fundamental principles of our 
government have a right to be represented, 
and to sav who shall make llie laws. It is 
not property or poverty that rules here. It 
is the man, responsible to God, and responsi- 
ble to the law. To say otherwise, would 
make poverty worse than a crime. The 
pauper is bound by every law upon the stat- 
ute book, and is j^rotected by every pr(jvis- 
ion of the constitution, as much so as the 
wealthiest, ^visest, or most successful mau 
in the community. Sickness, the calamities 
and accidents of "life may reduce men to this 
sad condition. That is bad enough. _ The 
law never intended to add to his miseries by 
making him the only slave that remains iu 
our Republic. All the duties of life, bind 
him ; he can make a contract, he can bo 
obliged to testify, he can marry, he can sue 
and'be sued, he is only restrained and bound 
by rules as every one is who lives in any in- 
siifution. Persons in hospitals, asylums, 
factories, homes for disabled soldiers, iiublic 
works, government shops and all kinds of 
public and elemosynary institutions, as well 
as private establishments— are bound by fix- 
ed rules— that are enacted for the preserva- 
tion of good order, to maintain discipline 
and carry out the purposes of the establish- 
ments. 'This isallthat he is subjected to, 
and these rules and the restraints of the 
house, he can relieve himself from at any mo- 
ment by asking for his discharge. The poor 
house is his residence, it would be there that 
process of law, criminal or civil, would be 
served upon him, and it is from that residence 
he may vote, provided he has lived there teu 
days preceding tbe election and conformed 
to "the requirements of the law. If to receive 
public support would be legal cause of dis- 
qualification, we must not forget that evea 
now a large number of white and black cit- 
izens of the Southern portion of this nation 
are still receiving and levying upon the sup- 
plied bounty of the government. What 
would be their condition? For some of those 
who have received and still receive that 
bounty were once the wealthiest and best 
bred, 'and the most accomplished and some- 
times reputed the wisest people in this re- 
gion. By the calamities of war they are re- 
'duced to want, but God forbid that they or 
any one should by any calamity be stripped 
of their right of manhood and brutalized 
down to tliat slavery from which we have 
been, by God's providence, all emancipated. 
I am respectfully, 

Benjamin IIakius Beewstek. 



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